This is Easton Johnson! Easton is 9yrs old and recently had spinal fusion surgery. Easton has a very long list of medical needs and has had a very tough go at life in the last 9 yrs. Fusion surgery was scheduled due to scoliosis. The hope was to get Easton's spine back to straight. Surgery was Jan 14th and everything was under way. Surgery took 8hrs only to find out at the end the he was not able to get both of the rods placed. When the surgeon had both rods placed, Easton would loose all nerve function from the waste down. The doc started trying to figure out what was going on and began removing the rods. After several attempts, the best scenario was to leave only one rod in and sew Easton up until more imaging could happen. The spine doc was not sure what was causing the issue. So after many hours of being in the operating room, Easton was sent to recovery with only one rod. The next day, they sent him down to get some imaging of the spine to make sure there was no permanent damage, and to see if they could see what was going on. Turns out Easton has a condition called Epidural Lipomatosis. Basically, instead of spinal fluid, Easton has fatty tissue surrounding his spinal cord. What this means, is that when both rods were placed, it was holding the spine to straight, and putting pressure on the spinal cord, cutting off blood flow to his lower half.

So the new plan was to send Easton back to the OR to have another rod installed that would follow the exact layout of the spine, as long as his motor functions remained stable. This was the ticket! Both rods were placed, and on to recovery! He was fitted with a TLSO (back brace) and he was being monitored in the intensive care unit. He was healing well and we were getting excited to get home. Lisa and I learned how to care for him and what the dos and don'ts are. He is not allowed to crawl for 3 months!!! This is a huge problem as all he does is crawl. We new this was going to be a tough recovery, but we were not prepared for what was going to happen.

We were discharged from Gillette Children's hospital on Jan 19th. Once home, we quickly realized that this was going to be very difficult. Monday morning came along and I prepared to got to work. I pulled into work and Lisa called. She was not able to get Easton out of bed, due to his size and the new way that we have to move him around. So I went back home. Called work and asked for some more time off until we could get Easton in a better spot in the healing process. As the week went on, Lisa was trying to help with Easton as much as possible. Lisa is 110 LBS and Easton is 76lbs and can no longer help get himself up off the floor. I took the whole week off and things were going good.

Sunday night Jan 25th, Lisa was trying to get Easton in bed and she felt severe pain in her neck and shoulders. She ended up going into the Urgency Room Monday morning. She has a pinched nerve and put on a 10 lb. weight restriction for a week! I have now taken another week off of work to be able to help with Easton. Lisa will need to see a spine specialist if the pain does not go away by the end of the week. This is the start of week three for me being out of work with no PTO. It pains me to ask for help, but with half the household income gone, the bills are pilling up. I need to focus on getting Easton and Lisa healed up, but the stress of the bills is not helping me.

Easton goes back in for a check up on Feb 3rd. I will be out of work at least till the 4th, unless Lisa needs more intervention. This is a rough start to the year for us, but we have been through a lot in the almost 10 yrs with Easton, and this is the hardest of the 21 surgeries he has had. Anything helps.

Thank you for taking a min to hear our story.